Drawer latch



June 26, 1934. J. R. CLARK 1,963,954

DRAWER LATCH Filed Ari]. 7, 1933 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 June 26, 1934. J cLARK 1,963,954

DRAWER LATCH Filed April 7, 1933 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 June 26, 1934. J; R. CLARK 1,963,954

DRAWER LATCH Filed April 7, 1933 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 k/mesfClczr June 26, 1934. J. R. CLARK 1,963,954

DRAWER LATCH Filed April 7, 1933 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Patented June 26, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DRAWER LATCH Application April 7, 1933, Serial No. 664,920

18 Claims.

My invention relates to cabinets, such as filing cabinets, desks and the like and drawer latches therefor.

Among the chief objects and features of my 5 invention are:

Enclosing the latch bolt and operating mechanism entirely within the drawer front;

Eliminating danger of tearing the clothing or scratching the hand or arm in reaching into the 10 drawer, by doing away with any projection of the latch members beyond the confines of the drawer or cabinet parts;

Insurance of a more accurate alinement of the cabinet-carried latch members with the drawercarried latch members, despite practical manufacturing inaccuracies;

A more advantageous location of the latch with reference to the framing of the drawer and of the cabinet whereby the latch will better withstand the strain to which it may be subjected, for example, if the cabinet should so fall, in the course of a fire, that the weight of the contents of the drawer be thrown toward the front thereby tending to open the drawer against the latch 5:5 retention,and also whereby in such circumstances there is better provision against the drawer front warping or turning out of position to reveal a slot for the ingress of flames;

A design of latch mechanism which is applicable more or less universally to different heights and widths of drawer fronts, even though the latch hook remain a constant distance above the bottom of the drawer while the operating thumb piece is associated with a drawer handle the 33 placement of which varies with the height and width of the drawer front; and

An improved drawer structure permitting the assembly of the drawer front and its latch members as a unit before adding the drawer body, and permitting a simplified but rugged construction.

The foregoing, together with further objects, features and advantages of my invention are set forth in the following description of a specific embodiment thereof, taken in connection with J the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary perspective of the upper left hand corner of a filing cabinet showing the left half of a drawer partly withdrawn therefrom;

Fig. 2 is a perspective which can be considered as having been taken from a position about 90 farther to the left, and showing a perspective of the withdrawn drawer looking from the rear;

Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the drawer showing the latch mechanism in dotted lines;

Fig. 4 is a horizontal plan section which may be considered as taken on the irregular line 44 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary section similar to Fig. 4 but showing the drawer partly withdrawn;

Fig. 6 is a rear view of the drawer front broken away to show the latch mechanism therein, which can be considered as taken on the line 66 of Fig. 4;

Fig. '7 is a vertical section taken on the line T to Fig. 3 but showing the application of mylatch i mechanism to a shallow drawer;

Fig. 10 is a plan corner section similar to Fig. 4-. but showing, a modified mounting and arrangement of the latch hook and latch bolt; and

Fig. 11 is a diagrammatical front elevation of a drawer front showing simultaneous operating latches at both sides; and I Fig. 12 is a central vertical transverse section showing a modified latch engaging at the bottom of the drawer front.

The filing cabinet 10, to which I here illustrate my invention as applied, has provision for the usual superposed group of drawers 11. The cabinet 10 has two side walls16 of sheet metal which may be integral with the back wall. At its forward edge each side wall 16 is flanged into the plane of the front of the cabinet to form a reinforcing and thickness-simulating front edge 17 the inner edge of which is rebent at 18. The front edge of each side is reinforced by a vertical column 19 which extends into the recess formed by the flanges 17 and 18 and is suitably spotwelded to the side and its flanges.

The top wall and also the bottom wall may be flanged as at 21 to provide a reinforcement'and thickness-simulating edge to complete the margin of the front opening of the cabinet. The front opening thus defined for the cabinets is divided into drawer openings by horizontal cross rail channels 22 secured at their ends to the front vef= tical reinforcing columns 19. V

The drawers as here shown are preferably mounted by roller extension slides. For this purpose I provide ease strips 23 extending the depth of the cabinet and secured at their front ends to the vertical reinforcing columns 19 and secured at their rear ends to similar rear reinforcing columns. The case strips, as is customary, come at the bottom of the drawer openings and rest upon the cross-rail channels 22. The case strips, by being secured to the reinforcing columns, themselves act as reinforcements to the-frame of the cabinet. Aswill laterbe explained, they constitute points of anchorage which are calculated to distribute any strains over the cabinet frame generally. The drawer slides 24 are mounted to reciprocate in the channel-shaped case strips and in turn engage a bead or flange 25 at the bottom corner of the drawer.

The drawer comprises a drawer front 26 and a body 27. The bottom 28 and sides 29 of the body 2'7 may be formed from a single sheet, with a rear plate 30 added to form the rear wall. The roller engaging suspension flange 25 for the drawer is preferably a strip of Z-shaped cross section welded to each drawer side near its lower edge.

The drawer front 26 comprises a front plate 31 flanged rearwardly as at 32 then inwardly as at 33 and again rearwardly as at 34, to form a reinforcing and thickness-simulating edge at each side. ,At its bottom the front plate 31 is flanged inwardly and then upwardly as indicated at 35 and 36 in Fig. '7. At its top the front plate 31 may similarly be flanged as shown in Fig. 2. The juncture of the top and bottom flanges with the side flanges is preferably by mitering as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 3 and in full lines in Fig. 2. I

A latch guiding plate 3'7 is spot-welded to the inside face of each flange 34 of the front plate 31. Each plate 37 comes in the plane of the corresponding side wall 29 of the drawer. However the forward end of the drawer side is notched out, as shown in Fig. '7, to the profile of the plate 37 plus some clearance. When the body is assembled With the drawer front, the forward edge of the bottom 28 of the body extends to the'rear side of the front plate and rests upon its return flange 36. Each side wall 29 of the body is spot-welded to the flange 34.

As thus far described, the construction, only one side of which is illustrated, is duplicated on both sides. The latch mechanism however preferably is arranged upon only one side.

The latch hook 46 for the latch mechanism is 1 formed from a flat strip of metal which'is spotwelded horizontally to the top flange of the case strip 23. As shown in Fig. 4,.the case strip terminates short of the front plane of the cabinet,

in order that the relatively thick drawer front may be set within the plane of the cabinet front. The end of the latch hook 40 however projects beyond the end of the case strip 23 (Fig. 8) and, when the drawer is closed as in Fig. 4, projects "*through a slot 41 in the flange 33 of the drawer front plate 31 where, as will presently'be described, it is engaged by the latch bolt.

The latch bolt 42 has a rearwardly offset end portion 43 which engages the walls of a notch 44 i in the latch hook 40. The offset portion 43 of the latch bolt is reciprocally mounted in a slot 45 in the latch guiding plate 3'7. The main portion of the latch bolt 42 extends along the inside of the front plate 31 to a point adjacent the drawer handle 46 where it is supported by the inwardly it horizontally toward the handle to withdraw the latch bolt from engagement with the latch hook 40.

For normally urging the latch bolt to its latched position, I provide a suitable spring 49 such as the hairpin-shaped wire spring illustrated in Figs. 3 and 6. One end of the spring is anchored to the threaded stud 50 of the handle 46 and the other end is caught in a hole in a rearwardly struck flange 51 at the inner end of the latch bolt, and the bight of the spring is preferably given an additional convolution to increase its resilience.

The advantage in having the slot 45, through which the hook engaging end of the latch bolt passes, in a separate plate 37, rather than in the side wall 29 of the body itself, is this: It is of course necessary that the end 43 of the bolt come vertically opposite the latch hook 440 in order that there be any engagement. But for long wear and uniformly effective action, it is further desirable that the hook member engage the latch approximately at the midpoint (vertically) of the latch bolt end 43. Otherwise the bolt tends to turn and bind and in time will tend to slip out of engagement. Because the sides of the drawer are formed integrally with the bottom, the manufac-' turing inaccuracies customarily encountered would make it dimcult always so to locate a slot stamped in the blank that'after being bent up into form the slot would come at the proper ele-' vation to insure the latch hook engaging the latch bolt at the latters midpoint. On the other hand a separate latch bolt guiding plate 3'7, in which the slot can accurately be punched, can be welded the drawer front without the necessity of any particular accurateness.

Another advantage is that the drawer frontthe front plate 31, the handle 46, latch bolt 42, the spring 49-may all be assembled as a unit prior to its assembly with the rest of the drawer body.

if the drawer body is secured to the drawer front as here shown by spot welding, this sub-assembly could be assembled but preferably not enameled.

If the drawer front be secured to the drawer body by rivets or screws to provide a knocked down 2 construction, then the sub-assembly can be assembled, enameled and shipped as a sub-assembly for subsequent securement to the drawer body.

The handle 46 preferably secured to the front plate 31 of the drawer front 26 by nuts and spacing washers 52 and 53, in conjunction with the threaded mounting studs 50 of the drawer handle. One of these studs, as explained, may form the anchorage for one end of the spring 49. To protect the latch operating mechanism, and to dress up the inside of the drawer front, a front liner 54 is used. Its edges are flanged forwar 1y to .fit within the frame formed by the several marginal flanges of the front plate 31. A slot 55 permits the insertion of the liner 54 after the latch boltis assembled in the drawer front. posite the handle 46 the liner 54 is depressed forwardly and penetrated by the studs 50, to which the liner is clamped by the nuts 50.

In a drawer of the size and proportions shown At the region opits in Figs. 1 to 8 inclusive, the latch hook 46 comes 7 below the thumb piece 48. When a relatively shallow drawer is used as illustrated'in Fig. :9,

the latch hook 46 comes above the thumb piece 1 48. This is because the height of the latch hook 40 above the bottom of the drawer remains constant while the height of the handle, opposite which the thumb piece 48 is placed, is located at various distances vertically from the bottom of the drawer front, depending on the height of the drawer front. Thus in Fig. 3 the latch bolt 42 extends obliquely downwardly from the thumb piece to the latch hook, while in Fig. 9 it extends obliquely upwardly. It is one of the features of my invention that the latch mechanism is more or less universally applicable to different sizes of drawer fronts by varying only the length and obliqueness of the latch bolt.

One of the principal reasons for providing a latch for a filing cabinet drawer is to prevent the drawer being opened, and consequently exposed to the flames and water, in the event of being so tipped, in the course of a fire, that the weight of the contents is thrown forward. Another purpose is to prevent the drawers coming out if the cabinet is tipped forwardly while being moved with the drawers and the contents in place. In either case, when the cabinet is tipped forwardly, the forward thrust of the weight of the contents must be resisted by the latch, which in turn means that the latch hook must carry the strain. If the latch hook is mounted on one of the crossrails 22, there is the danger that under extreme strain the partition strip may bow sufiiciently to permit the latch to slip past the hook. One of the features of my latch mechanism is that the latch hook 40 is fixed to the case strip 23 which in turn is secured to the forward vertical reinforcing column 19 and preferably also to a similar reinforcing column at the rear. The latch hook is thereby quite directly anchored to the very frame of the cabinet itself with any forward pull on the latch hook well distributed over the cabinet as a whole. There is thus no danger of the part which holds the latch hook bowing or otherwise giving way to release the latch.

Another feature of my invention is that the latching comes at an elevation very close to the drawer bottom at which elevation the drawer is best reinforced against strains tending to twist its rectangular plan section into a non-rectangular parallelogram. There is also less tendency for the drawer front, subjected to the weight of the contents, being twisted or warped out of the plane of the cabinet front and opening up cracks through which water and flames can pass to damage the contents in the event of fire or-even in moving-permanently to warp the drawer.

Another feature of my invention is the elimination of danger of a release of the latch or a permanent deformation or twisting of the latch bolt, which might interfere with its effectiveness. In the actual securement of the latch, no considerable portion of the latch bolt itself is required to carry any strain. The latch hook engaging end of the latch bolt acts merely as a key to bridge across the narrow slot 41 in the flange 33 of the front plate 31. The slot is too narrow in proportion to the cross sectional area of the latch bolt, to result in any tendency to buckle the end of the latch bolt. The latch bolt is subjected to no strain which tends to throw it out of its normal position. In other words if all of the latch bolt, save that which protrudes without the slot 45 in the plate 37 were cut away and removed, the latch, if under tension, would still continue to hold. I

An outstanding feature of my invention however is the elimination of any protruding or projecting latch parts. When latch bolts are projected at the top of the drawer front, they tend to catch the operators clothes or scratch the hand or arm when reaching into the drawer. When the latch bolt projects from the bottom of the drawer front it tends to catch the clothing or arm in the event one drawer is partially open and the drawer below is open still further and an operator reaches into the lower drawer to remove papers. If the latch bolt protrudes from the side, it may be caught while reaching sidewise into the drawer, or in passing a drawer which has been left open. No part of my latch mechanism extends beyond, or protrudes from, the drawer front. The drawer-carried parts of the latch mechanism are entirely contained within the drawer front. This not only eliminates the danger of being caught by the protruding parts,

but also contributes to a more sightly appearance.

The cabinet-carried part of the latch mechanismwhile not entirely concealed within the cabinet when the drawer is open is nevertheless placed in an inconspicuous position and one which would be almost impossible for an operator to contact.

When the drawer is open, the latch hook is still set well back from the plane of the cabinet front, and is recessed so close to the inner face 18 of the side wall that it is well guarded thereby. It also lies closely adjacent the drawer side but a considerable distance below the upper edge thereof, so that it is also guarded by the side wall of the drawer.

In Fig. 10 I have shown a modified latch construction wherein the latch hook 40a, instead of being secured to the upper flange of the casing strip 23, is secured to the inner face of the vertical corner column 19 and consequently wherethe material may be bent into a hook shape instead of being cut out into a hook-shaped contour. In Fig. 10 I have also shown a modified latch bolt 42a, the hook engaging end of which is bent into a goose-neck which permits the bolt mounting slot 45a to be located adjacent the front plate 31 of the drawer front rather than spaced rearwardly therefrom. 7

In Fig. 11 I have diagrammatically indicated a double acting latch-a latch at each side of the drawer. The two latches are simultaneously actuated by the single finger piece 481). The left hand latch bolt 42b and theright hand latch bolt 561) are pivotally connected to the ends of a lever 57b pivoted at 58b to the front plate and rocked by the thumb piece 48b against the spring 491). The double latch even better equalizes the strains and holds the drawer against coming open when tipped.

Fig. 12 shows another modification where the latch bolt 420 is vertically mounted and its goosenecked end engages a latch hook 400, which may be of identically the same form as the latch hook 40a of Fig. 10 except that it is secured to the top flange of the cross rail channel 220 and extends into the hollow front wall throu h an opening 410 in the inwardly rebent flange 360 of the front plate of the drawer front. The latch bolt 420 may be released either by direct connection to an upwardly moving thumb piece or, as here indicated, it can be operated by a laterally moving thumb piece 480 by means of a bell crank 58c pivoted to the front plate at 59c and pivoted to the bolt 420 at one end and secured to the thumb piece at the other end.

bodiment of my invention, I contemplate that changes may be made therefrom without departing from the scope or spirit of my invention.

I claim: a

1; The combination with a filing cabinet of sheet metal having a front face defining drawer opening, a drawer in the cabinet, a hollow front of sheet metal for the drawer, the outside face of which is substantially in a plane with the front face of the cabinet, a finger piece exposed on the outside of the drawer front adjacent the center thereof, a latch member arranged wholly within the hollow drawer front and operated by the exposed'finger piece, and a cabinet-carried latch member normally concealed by the drawer front and extending into the interior of the drawer front for engagement by the first latch member.

2. The combination with a filing cabinet of a drawer working therein, a hollow front for the drawer, drawer sides extending rearwardly from the front at spaced distances inwardly from the lateral edges of the front, leaving projecting lateral' edges of the hollow drawer front beyond the drawer sides, a latch member work ng in one of the projecting portions of the drawer front, an exposed finger piece on the front face of the drawer front for operating said latch member, a rearwardly opening slot in said offset portion adjacent the latch member, and a forwardly extending cabinet-carried latch member arranged to enter the slot as the drawer closes for latching engagement with the drawer-carried latch member.

3. The combination with a filing cabinet of a drawer slidably mounted therein, the drawer comprising lateral sides and a hollow front extending beyond the lateral sides, and an opening in the rearward face of the hollow drawer front beyond the adjacent lateral side, a forwardly extending latch hook secured to the inner side of the cabinet rearwardly of the closed position of the drawer front and arranged to enter the hollow drawer front through said opening as the drawer closes, a latch bolt slidably mounted within the hollow drawer front for latching engagement with the bolt, and an exposed manually engageable operating member for releasing the latch bolt.

4. The combination with a filing cabinet of a drawer therefor, the drawer comprising a hollow mounted therein and in turn slidably supporting the drawer, the case strip being disposed rearwardly of the drawer front and between the cabinet wall and the adjacent drawer side, and a latch comprising a latch hook secured to the case strip and projecting forwardly thereof, a slot in the rearward side ,of the drawer front through which the protruding end of the latch hook enters the hollow drawer front as the drawer is closed, a latch bolt slidably mounted within the drawer front for latching engagement with the end of the latch bolt which enters the drawer front and a finger piece exposed on the front side of the drawer front for sliding the latch bolt tolrelease the latch.

5. The combination with a filing cabinet of a drawer'therefor comprising a hollow drawer front and drawer sides spaced inwardly from the lateral edgesof thedrawer front, means for slidably suspending the drawer in the cabinet comprising a case strip secured to the cabinet and disposed rearwardly of the drawer front and outwardly of the drawer side, and a latch for the drawer comprising a latch hook secured to the case strip and extending forwardly therefrom and intermediate the top and bottom edges of the drawer side, a latch bolt slidably mounted on the rearward side of the front face of the drawer front and lying forwardly of the plane of the rear face of the drawer front for latching engagement with the latch hook when the drawer is closed, and a manually engageable member exposed on the front side of the drawer front for releasing the latch bolt.

6. The combination with a filing cabinet having a side wall and a vertical reinforcing column at the forward edge thereof, of a plurality of superposed drawers arranged in the cabinet, each drawer comprising a hollow drawer front which, when the drawer is in its closed position, is positioned within the plane of the cabinet front, and a drawer body including bottom, side and end walls secured to the drawer front, means for slidably supporting the drawers in the cabinet, and a latch for each drawer comprising a latch member anchored to the reinforcing column and disposed rearwardly of the front plane of the cabinet and between the cabinet wall and the drawer side at an elevation beneath the upper edge of the drawer side and, relative to the height of the drawer front, being adjacent the plane of the drawer bottom, the latch hook being arranged to enter into the interior of the hollow drawer front as the drawer is closed, alatch bolt movably mounted in the drawer front for latching engagement with the latch hook, and manually engageable means exposed on the front side of the drawer front for releasingthelatchbolt.

7. The combination with a cabinet of a drawer therefor comprising a drawer front and drawer sides, the drawer front comprising a front plate flanged rearwardly then inwardly to the drawer side leaving a lateral space between the edge of the drawer front and the drawerside, the drawer side extending to the rearward side of the front plate, a slot in the inwardly directed flange, a: latch hook secured to the interior of the cabinet and concealed by the drawer front when the drawer is closed, the latch hook being arranged to pass through the slot and into the space beposed .on the drawer front for sliding the latch bolt for releasing its engagement with the hook.

8. The combination with a cabinet of a drawer therefor comprising a drawer front and a drawer side, the drawer front comprising a front plate of sheet metal having a lateral flange bent rear- I l-ill cal plate arranged adjacent the drawer front and parallel with the plane of the drawer side, a slot in the vertical plate opposite the space between the front plate and the inner flange through which one end of the latch bolt passes, exposed manual means for sliding thev latch bolt, and 'a latch hook secured in the interior of the cabinet and arranged to enter the space between the inner tween the inward flange and the front plate as flange and the front plate as the drawer closes for latching engagement with the latch bolt.

9. The combination with a cabinet and drawer therefor having a drawer front, of a latch mecha nism comprising a vertical plate member arranged parallel with but spaced rearwardly from the front face of the drawer front, a narrow horizontal slot in the plate member, a horizontally disposed flat latch hook carried on the interior of the cabinet in the horizontal plane of the slot and arranged to enter the slot as the drawer is closed, a latch bolt slidably mounted in the drawer front and comprising a fiat hook engaging end disposed in a vertical plane immediately forwardly of the plate member and substantially centered vertically of the slot, whereby, when the latch hook and bolt are engaged, an opening strain on the drawer causes the margins of the slot and the latch hook to tend to act as dies to shear a notch from the end of the bolt.

10. The combination of a cabinet having a side wall, a drawer working in the cabinet, a drawer front of sheet metal comprising a front plate having a rearwardly directed lateral flange with an inwardly directed sub-flange, a vertical drawer side secured to the drawer front at a spaced distance inwardly from the lateral edge of the drawer front, said inwardly directed flange ex tending across said distance, a forwardly extending flat latch hook secured to the cabinet wall interiorly of the cabinet, a narrow slot in said inwardly directed flange parallel with said flat hook and arranged to be penetrated by said hook as the drawer is closed, a latch bolt having a fiat hook engaging end slidably mounted within the drawer front with its flat end parallel with,

and disposed against the forward face of, the inwardly directed flange and across a portion of the slot whereby, when the latch hook and bolt are engaged, a forward pull on the drawer causes the latch hook and the margins of the slot to act as die members tending to shear a notch from the end edge of the latch bolt.

11. A sheet metal drawer comprising bottom and side walls formed from a single sheet of metal, a drawer front of sheet metal having rearward y extending lateral flanges parallel with, and in surface contact with, the adjacent drawer side, means for fastening the drawer sides to the flanges, a latch member slidably mounted on the drawer front at a rearward side thereof and extending laterally beyond the plane of one of the drawer sides, and means for guiding the latch bolt comprising a plate secured to the flange and disposed in the plane of the drawer side, the drawer side being cut away for the plate, the plate having a guiding slot for the latch bolt.

12. The combination with a filing cabinet of a drawer working therein, the drawer having a drawer front with a front face and vertical sides, the front extending laterally at each side beyond the drawer sides, a cabinet-carried latch mem-- her on each side of the drawer rearwardly of the associated extension of the drawer front and adapted to enter the drawer front when the drawer is closed, a drawer-carried latch member at each side of the drawer and within the associated extension of the drawer front for latching cooperation with the associated cabinet-carried latch member, a handle for the drawer front and a finger piece on the front side of the drawer front and within a finger spread of the handle, and operating mechanism within the drawer front for simultaneously operating both drawercarried latch members by the finger piece.

13. The combination with a filing cabinet of a drawer working therein, the drawer having a drawer front with a front face and vertical sides, the front extending laterally at each side beyond the drawer sides, a cabinet-carried latch member on each side of the drawer rearwardly of the associated extension of the drawer front and adapted to enter the drawer front when the drawer is closed, a drawer-carried latch member at each side of the drawer and within the associated extension of the drawer front for latching cooperation with the associated cabinet-carried latch member, a handle for the drawer front and a finger piece on the front side of the drawer front and within a finger spread of the handle, and mechanism for simultaneously operating the two drawer-carried latch members by the finger piece comprising a lever pivotally mounted on the drawer front intermediate the ends of the lever, a link pivotally connecting one end of the lever with one of the drawer-carried latch members, and a link pivotally connecting the other end of the lever with the other drawer-carriedlatch member, the finger piece being operatively connected with said mechanism for rotating the lever.

14. The combination with a filing cabinet having a front face defining a drawer opening, of a drawer in the cabinet, a front for the drawer having hollow interior portions, the drawer front closing the drawer opening, drawer sides extending rearwardly from the drawer front and inwardly from the margins thereof, a finger piece exposed on the front side of the drawer front, a latch member working and concealed within the hollow portions of the drawer front and operated by the exposed finger piece, and a cabinet-carried latch member within the drawer opening but without the drawer sides which member, when the drawer is closed, is concealed by the drawer front and extends intoan interior portion of the drawer front for cooperative latching engagement with the first mentioned latch member.

15. The combination with a cabinet, of a. drawer slidably mounted therein and having lateral side walls, a bottom wall, a rear end wall and a front, the drawer front having a hollow region formed between thefront plate and a rear plate, a slot in the rear plate concealed by the front plate and positioned in a portion of said front which overhangs the said walls, a forwardly extending cabinet-carried latch member arranged to extend into the slot when the drawer is closed, a drawer-carried latch member within the hollow region for latching engagement with the cabinet-carried latch member, a mounting for the drawer-carried latch member yleldable against slot-entering engagement of the cabinetcarried latch member therewith to afford a ratcheting of the members into latching engagement, and manually operable means for disengaging the latch members.

16. The combination with a cabinet, of a drawer slidably mounted therein and having lateral side walls, a bottom wall, a rear end wall and a front, the drawer front having a hollow region formed between the front plate and a rear plate, a slot in the rear plate concealed by the front plate and positioned in a portion of said front which overhangs the said walls, a forwardly extending cabinet-carried latch member arranged to extend into the slot when the drawer is closed, a drawer-carried latch member movably mounted within the hollow region for latching engagement with the cabinet-carried latch member, and manually operable means for moving thedrawer-carried latch member within the drawer front out of latching engagement with the cabinet-carried latch member.

17. The combination with a cabinet, of a drawer slidably mounted therein and having lateral side walls, a bottom wall, a rear end wall and a front, the drawer front having a hollow region formed between the front plate and a rear plate, a slot in the rear plate concealed by the front plate and positionedin a portion of said front which overhangs the said walls, a forwardly extending cabinet-carried latch member arranged to extend into the slot when the drawer is closed, a drawer-carried latch member Within the hollow region for latching engagement with the cabinet-carried latch member, a mounting for the drawer-carried latch member yieldable against slot-entering engagement of the cabinet-carried latch member therewith to afford a ratcheting of the members into latching engagement, and manually operable means for moving the drawer-carried latch member in the drawer front out of latching engagement with the cabinet-carried latch member.

18. The combination with a cabinet, of a drawer slidably mounted therein and having lateral side walls, a bottom wall, a rear end wall and a front, the drawer front having a hollow region formed between the front late and a rear plate, a slot in the rear plate concealed by the front plate and positioned in a portion of said front which overhangs the said walls, a forwardly extending cabinet-carried latch member arranged to extend into the slot when the drawer is closed, a drawer-carried latch member within the hollow region for latching engagement with the cabinet-carried latch member, and a mounting for the drawer-carried latch member, said latch member moving entirely within thehollow region of the drawer front and relative to the slot.

JAMES R. CLARK. 

